I survived my first Hills Friendship Days.I am sure that doesn’t seem like a very big feat to my readers, since most of you haven’t had any problems making it through the weekend in the past, but for me it seems like a big deal.Early this past spring, when I first heard about Friendship Days, it was explained to me by my co-workers in Luverne as a two-day celebration centering on one day of activities. Instantly, I became excited – a celebration in my little town — a celebration bigger than an auction or a football game.I was quickly warned not to get too excited because the events would probably not meet my expectations. Well, that didn’t stop me from looking forward to the weekend in June.I attended a Community Club meeting to get details, put as many of those details as possible in the paper and invited every member of my family and all of my friends to town for the day.Obviously, my anticipation hadn’t wavered; I knew that whatever happened that weekend, it had to be more activity than Hills sees every other weekend of the year.Unfortunately, on Friday I began to feel a bit of pressure. In my capacity as the only reporter for the Hills Crescent I wanted to be sure to cover every event.The kids shooting free throws deserved just as much recognition as the men golfing. Plus, several family members actually decided it sounded like a fun day and drove to town for the festivities. I had volunteered an hour of both my husband’s and my day to helping with the Whopper Feed. How would I pull it off and still manage to enjoy myself?Friday I started at the Beaver Creek Golf Course. This turned out to be an easy assignment, mainly because it involved a delicious meal prepared by H-BC’s Andy Blank, and Rodney Scholten made sure my table never got too thirsty.As I sat on the patio laughing and taking photographs of golfers, I settled down and realized covering Friendship Days would be easy.That must have been the Miller Lite talking, because when I woke up at 7:45 a.m. Saturday for the FFA alumni pancake breakfast, the pressure was on again.Starting with the breakfast, people had questions for me. Where was this being held, when did this start, was it going to rain all day, would things be canceled???Thankfully, I had committed the schedule of events to memory and was able to answer most questions, and although the weather did look pretty bad, I knew Mother Nature would pull through for me, as she always does.Following the breakfast I began showing up to photograph various events with occasional stops at rummage sales.I didn’t manage to get to every event, but I did have a GREAT time, better than I had even expected. I figured I would use this week’s column to share some of my favorite and most memorable moments.By far my favorite moment of the entire day was standing with Anthony and Alana Ranfranz in the drizzling rain at the Beaver Creek Sportman’s Club MinnAqua Program at the Rez.The brother and sister duo were preparing their rods for fishing. Anthony had rigged up a black lure and was attempting to attach a bright orange lure onto his sister’s pole. I took their photo and when I asked what they hoped to catch, the response I got was priceless and worthy of any Cosby show…"We’re gonna get a northern."Later that day I ran into Anthony at the park and asked if he had any luck getting his northern."Yeah, I caught one."Throughout the day I had the help of my 9-year-old nephew. He kept a lookout for children with trophies and other photo opportunities, and he let me know when the kids playing with the snakes were getting too close. Without him I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as many good photos.Finally, the biggest surprise was seeing how well Lois Leenderts handled the Whopper Feed situation. She must be a very patient and understanding mother and wife.As a volunteer on the first shift, I was privy to the kitchen disaster brought on by a power-hungry Burger King employee. The man Burger King sent to Hills to orchestrate the Whopper Feed acted like he was the president of hamburgers, and those of us volunteering knew nothing about toasting buns, serving fries or dressing a burger.It certainly didn’t help the situation when he made a very big mistake by running out of propane — halting the preparation of all fries and burgers.Fortunately, Lois remained calm and kept that warm and friendly smile on her face as she explained to the hungry townsfolk that they would be getting chips instead of fries.I would not have handled it that well, especially after seeing how long the line had become. Lois deserves the 2005 Friendliest Friendship Days Award for her flawless handling of the worst Whopper Feed disaster I have ever witnessed.Story ideas or comments can be emailed to Lexi Moore at lexim@star-herald.com or called in at 962-3561.